Radio Times 29-4th February 2022

THERE’S SOMETHING DOUBLY appetising about television cookery shows as we approach drab February. And right on cue… Voilà! Look who’s entered the RT kitchen this week? Step forward Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, Andi Oliver with her daughter Miquita, and the judges from Great British Menu. In his new series, The Great Cookbook Challenge, Jamie Oliver sets out to mentor young cooks as they compete to land a recipe book deal. The show combines cookery and competition, plus large dollops of Oliver’s infectious enthusiasm, with the added twist that writing a cookbook can be a life-changing experience. As Jamie knows only too well. At school, Jamie was written off as “a special needs kid” whose dyslexia meant he never thought he would write a book. He wanted to work in a pub instead.…

Television Your TV guide starts on p45 ▸ 1 The Responder Monday—Wednesday 9.00pm BBC1 Three episodes on successive nights round off the superb drama about a beat cop (Martin Freeman) in crisis. Thankfully, amid all the pain and stress, there are absurd comic moments that take us by surprise. 2 The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver Monday 8.00pm C4 The start of a TV cookery competition like no other — the prize here is a publishing deal. With 26 bestselling cookbooks to his name, Jamie Oliver is the perfect mentor for the 18 cooks who are trying to follow in his footsteps. INTERVIEW P8 ▸ 3 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Friday 11.30am BBC1 Sixteen days of chills and thrills open with the curtain-raising formalities in Beijing. The games may be caught in a diplomatic snowstorm but that won’t stop the…

THE BBC ISN’T PERFECT. The Government believes the way it is funded is due for an overhaul, and many of the corporation’s senior staff agree – though they have seemed further apart because of all the political noise coming out of Westminster. Nobody would argue that demanding a licence to have a television set is the perfect answer for the digital age, but Auntie Beeb has got caught up in Boris Johnson’s battle for survival. The newish director-general Tim Davie has acknowledged criticisms of the BBC’s record – he has said, for instance, that they need to work much harder on impartiality – and seems open to new methods of funding. The argument is about how far to go. At its worst, the Government has gone in for Beeb bashing with briefings…

The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver Monday 8.00pm C4 THIS SHOW HAS been one of the highlights of the past 20 years,” exclaims Jamie Oliver about his latest project, The Great Cookbook Challenge, with irrepressible excitement. That’s no small statement from the former Naked Chef, who in the two decades since bursting onto our screens has been awarded an MBE, won a Bafta and an Emmy and become the biggest-selling nonfiction writer in UK history. In history. He has written 26 cookbooks and his global sales are in excess of 47 million copies. So, it’d be fair to say, he knows a thing or two about what makes a successful cookbook – and that’s where this new series, which starts this week on Channel 4, comes in. It’s a confluence of…

JIMI FAMUREWA FOOD CRITIC The London Evening Standard’s food critic, who also appears regularly as a guest judge on BBC1’s MasterChef. LOUISE MOORE PUBLISHER Managing director of Michael Joseph (part of the Penguin Random House group), who will offer the winner a cookbook deal. GEORGINA HAYDEN WRITER The cookbook author, food writer and stylist was part of Jamie’s food team for 12 years. Taverna, full of Greek Cypriot recipes, was published in 2021. GROOMER: JULIA BELL; STYLIST: LIMA O’DONNELL; STYLING CREDITS: INDIGO DELINQUENTS HERRINGBONE TWILL SHIRT BY YMC; JASON BELL/BBC PHOTOSALES; RADIO TIMES ARCHIVE; ALAMY…

Great British Menu Tue–Thu 8.00pm BBC2 ED GAMBLE COMEDIAN AND FOOD PODCASTER IT’S HARDER THAN it looks being a judge on Great British Menu – as the all-new panel discovered while filming this year’s series. Chef Tom Kerridge returns to the series but outside of the kitchen, while Nisha Katona, who runs the Mowgli chain of restaurants, and comedian Ed Gamble join him in sampling two four-course meals, plus canapés and pre-desserts in one sitting for each episode. Once they were into finals week, it was eight starters, followed by eight fish courses, eight mains and eight puds. It’s essential to pace yourself. Andi Oliver, the show’s presenter, has a “four-bite rule” for each dish. But Gamble had a hard time following her advice. “I was told expressly from the outset not to eat…